


Stars Beyond the Horizon

by psychadelicrose



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Prologue, Resonance Bang 2017, Slow Burn, Super Mario Galaxy AU, its gonna be shameless cute slow romance sorry not sorry, mastar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 03:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13426293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychadelicrose/pseuds/psychadelicrose
Summary: Lost in space with a mission to rescue his friend, Black Star gets more than he bargains for when he learns that there’s not only more behind the kidnapping of the kingdom’s princess, but also more to the mysterious girl who’s lent her hand to help him. With the galaxies and everything they have to offer at their fingertips, Maka and Black Star set out on an adventure that slowly but surely brings them closer together. || Super Mario Galaxy AU.





	Stars Beyond the Horizon

He couldn't see. Everything was flickering and phasing in and out of sight. He couldn't focus on anything, and rather than everything being a haze, everything was too _piercing._

His ears popped uncomfortably and he could hear a distant cry, a shout for his name. Something, many things, were too bright. It burned his eyes and made it hard to open them and look for the source.  
  
It was getting harder to breathe-- oxygen was becoming thinner and thinner and yet he could feel what little oxygen he had left getting sucked out of his lungs, the sheer force of whatever was pulling him --them, he vaguely remembered that it was a _them_ and not just him-- nearly crushing him against the broken and cracked concrete he lay against.  
  
He tried to crack his eyes open, and found himself staring at a massive blur, blue flooding into sight and speckles of green flashing across his eyes.  
  
There was heat, massive amounts of heat surrounding him. Flashes of hot, stinging air seemed like they made circles around him. A red glow enveloped him whenever the heat would pass by, and it hurt his eyes even more. The heat made an awful crackling and screeching noise, almost as if it was so hot it was cutting straight through the ground.  
  
The distinct smell of _burning_ and ozone filled his nose, despite the air becoming thinner with every breath he took.  
  
A cackle made its way to him, just as jarring and loud as the looming rays of heat, and another shout of his name came before a sharp and heavy force hit him dead on.

He vaguely realized he couldn't feel any gravity when his body left solid ground.

He wakes up sputtering and heaving, the sting of cool air entering his lungs after he thought they’d given out. Black Star stays laying down and digs his fingers into the ground below him, hoping to stop the world from spinning around him.

His eyes begin to refocus as he takes in shaky breaths, feeling tears gather at the corners of his eyes from the burning sensation in his chest. A hazy white light hangs over his head, but it soon moves out of his sight before he can tell what it is.

The ground against his back feels cool, and softer than the concrete he’d been crushed against.

As he realizes this, memories come flooding back to him, rushing into the front of his mind and startling him with a jolt. He remembers the castle, lifted into thin air with a power he couldn’t comprehend, and running onto the steps just in time to see Tsubaki stare face to face with a black mass, dark smoke curling and somehow seeping all at once onto the stone railing of her balcony.

He’d frantically called her name and her eyes flitted towards him just as she’d clutched something small to her chest, taking a step back from the dark smoke before her. He remembers trying to get to her, but suddenly he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t stand.

A heaviness had pushed ruthlessly at him until his legs had given out, and he was face first on the ground in a matter of seconds. His stomach was lost in his throat and he had felt like he was going to heave up his guts any second. It had almost felt like he was falling, but the stars kept coming closer instead of fading away.

He remembers getting blasted off the steps of the castle, but that’s it. Confusion and doubt began to perforate whatever semblance of composure he had been trying to gather, and he finally grasped that he wasn’t where he once was.

Sitting up, his eyes are immediately drawn to a small, glittering body. He sucks in a squawk of surprise.

Big and round black eyes stare back at him, their owner floating soundlessly in front of where he sits. Their body is tiny, no bigger than the size of his own head, and he marvels at the shape of the creature in front of him; the shape a perfect star.

Although they are the shape of a star, their body is the opposite of anything sharp or pointed. In fact, the creature is rather…

_Pudgy._

His eyes widen as the creature slowly floats a little closer to him, those same big eyes coming in close enough to be inches away from his face, appearing to scrutinize him heavily. As they move, trails of glimmering dust fell from their body in wisps and clusters.

Black Star’s eyes flutter back and forth for a moment between the dust and the creature’s eyes, not knowing where or what to focus on. A second later, a tinkling voice greets him.

“...Are you okay?” the creature asks, hesitance laced between their words. Their voice is an twinkling echo, softly slipping past his ears like a breeze. His eyes widen to the size of plates, nearly choking on his surprise. He works quickly to respond, not knowing what to say.

“I-- yeah. I’m… okay.” His voice takes on a rough crackle for just an instant due to not having used it in a while, but he forces himself to stay consistent. The strange star child breathes a small sigh of relief, and Black Star leans forward a little more.

“Oh, that’s good! That could have ended up real bad, huh?” the star child chirps, appearing to lose some of the unease it was carrying. “Mama would have been really sad if you weren’t saved,” the child continues to say, humming to themselves.

“Mama?” He questions.

“Mhmm!” the star child chirps. “Mama wanted us to come get you ‘cuz you looked like you were in a real pinch!” The child looks like they feel accomplished as they say this, but Black Star tilts his head.

“‘Us’?” He repeats, wary of whatever answer this creature may give him.

“I mean, there were two other Lumas here a minute ago, cuz I couldn’t have carried you here all by myself.” The child explains, sounding like all of this should have been apparent from the beginning. “But they left just a bit before you woke up because Mama needed them.”

Once more he’s confused by the mention of ‘mama’. Maybe she was the ruler of these curious star people? A leader? But the way the child spoke of her sounded more like effortless adoration rather than the subservient respect he would expect when speaking of a ruler.

“You have a mother?” He asked, not really able to grasp anything else in his head to put into words. The child’s eyes light up. What could only be described as _stardust_ continues to flutter to the ground, the flow seeming to be spurred on by the child’s elation.

“Mhm! Mama takes care of all us Lumas by herself!” The child -- _luma?_ \-- spoke with boundless adoration, but something tugged at Star’s heart for a moment. He didn’t know why he wasn’t as focused on figuring out where he was anymore, or why he wasn’t as panicked, but for some reason he wanted to know more about this celestial mother.

“By herself?” he asked, feeling a strange sense of pity. “Doesn’t she get lonely?” the luma seemed to be surprised at this, and he wonders if he said something he shouldn’t have.

“Maybe.” He’s surprised at the sudden change in the creature’s tone, but they’re back to normal a moment later. “But that’s why it’s so great that you’re here now! Because now you can help Mama!” The Luma is suddenly rushing closer to him and tugs insistently at his shirt, and Black Star sputters as he lifts himself to his feet.

“Hey-- hey, easy there--!” he squawks, caught off guard by the surprising amount of strength the small creature has, but they pay him no mind. He vaguely notes that the ground is soft beneath his boots, and he just now realizes that he’s surrounded by an awful lot of blue.

“That’s why we gotta go now!” the Luma suddenly finishes, but his attention has been pulled away from the creature.

Deep, unending blue stands before him. It fills his eyes to the brim and spills out around him so that nothing but that same deep blue that he knows personally, that same blue and green that he’s touched himself, is all that he sees.

His heart drops in his chest as he stares out at the Earth in front of him, miles and miles away. He thinks he hears the Luma calling to him, or asking him something, but he can’t hear them anymore. The ringing in his ears is nothing compared to the complete and empty silence that is just dawning on him.

His eyes flicker down and he sees grass, lush and thick beneath his boots. A horizon that is much too _near_ greets him as he frantically searches around him, emotions that he’d momentarily forgotten rushing back to the forefront of his thoughts. The sudden fear of stepping too far takes ahold of him, but he’s never been afraid of falling.

_How far had they been taken?_

He turns his head and instead of the deep blue he knows in his heart, an all encompassing darkness stretches out before him. Stars speckle the blanket that covers him and he thinks about how _far_ he is away from home and he thinks about Tsubaki and if he’s here then she must be _farther_.

A breathless dread settles in his stomach like stones, creeping up his chest and constricting his insides until they feel cold and god he wished they felt numb.

“Where am I?” he croaks to the Luma.

His newfound companion floats to his side, having patiently waited behind a few feet while Black Star first began to survey his surroundings.

“The Gateway to the Starry Skies,” they say. “Mama created this place in order to bridge the gap between the Earth and the cosmos.” The Luma had taken on a quieter tone, wanting to be careful with their words and not upset him more than he is.

The planet (he thinks it’s a planet, a dwarf planet?) he’s standing on is small, smaller than he could have imagined a planet to be. The horizon that’s so close is only a few steps away, looking like it drops off into nothing. He swears that the planet isn’t even two miles around, just barely one.

Black Star finally looks around, wanting to curse away his fears as he sees that he’s truly at a dead end. That same lush, green grass covers parts of the dwarf planet like a blanket, carrying patches of vibrant flowers and the strangest butterflies he’s ever seen. He backs up from where he was standing to find that the area he was laying on was one of these flower patches, but none of the plants seem to be damaged.

He takes another, much more wary step backwards, seeing the flowers that he’d stepped on spring back up like nothing had happened. The flowers carried a soft buoyancy that prevented them from being crushed, almost as if they were grown specifically to last. They looked the farthest thing from something fake, however, as the sparkling butterflies rested and fluttered about the petals peacefully. He’d also felt their softness when he had clutched at the ground, he realizes.

For a moment he wonders how butterflies are able to survive here at all, and his mind wanders back to the mysterious mother of the Luma. Determination sets in his expression and he turns back to the Luma in question.

“Can you take me to her?” he asks, voice finally taking on the stable edge that it had been lacking since we woke up. He knew that if she was the one who had created all of this, if she had all of this power, then she would be the one to go to for answers.

The Luma nods without hesitation, and goes to tug at the back collar of his clothes, as Star has not turned back around yet.

“Of course! That’s what I was trying to do before!” the Luma exclaims, and Star finally turns back around to follow wherever the star child wanted to lead him. The star child is tugging at him insistently, and suddenly he is greeted the other side of the planet.

Instead of Earth staring back at him, the dark vacuum of space awaited him past the horizon, still too close for comfort. The Luma pulls at him insistently, and he follows closely behind.

The first thing he spots ahead of him is a tower of sorts, standing ten feet tall and at the ‘top’ of the planet. It’s a large circular shape is complete with a wide staircase that wraps around its sides, connected to a smooth stone ramp at the very base of the tower. Decorative arches line the outer walls of the tower, each with an intricate star adorning the spaces between the arches. Waist length parapets line the top of the tower.

The tower itself is constructed out of a cream colored stone, looking smooth to the touch. The decorative stars are painted a light blue, almost silver, the same color of the staircase’s surface. The same light blue color lines the edges of the ramp, and he can just barely see the floor of the top of the tower is the same color.

“Isn’t this place pretty?” the Luma suddenly chimes in, steadily dragging him along. “Mama doesn’t come here very often, so it’s nice to see it once in awhile! I don’t know why she doesn’t come back here more often, though…” they trail off, humming to themselves. Black Star narrows his eyes a bit at this, wondering why somebody who obviously put a lot of work into this place didn’t want to return to it often.

He looks around further as the Luma leads him effortlessly, finding each new detail to be increasingly curious.

On the small planet he sees shallow craters dipping into the earth, shelling out areas of the ground not covered by grass. In some of the craters lay crystal clear water, filled to the brim but never spilling over. Their waters were calm and tranquil. To his right lay three large stepping stones, each of them a smooth and natural grey. They look completely normal, but the perfect way they seemed to be placed reminds him yet again that somebody created this place.

He cranes his head just enough to see a circle of stone pillars behind him, looking like they had been carved directly from mountains themselves. They stand tall and sturdy, each having natural edges and curves but coming to a dull point at the top. What he finds incredibly interesting, though, is that they were placed in a circle.

Another flower bed, this one larger than the others he’s seen around the planet, lay in the middle of the stone circle. He questions the purpose of such placement, but was soon pulled out of his thoughts when they some up to the ramp that lead to the tower.

The Luma stops leading him closely and flew ahead just a bit, making Star tilt his head a little because the Luma strangely follows the path of the stairs instead of directly flying to the top. Why wouldn’t they take the more obvious way?

“Quickly now!” they call to him. Black Star huffs at being rushed, but hastens his gate nonetheless.

The first step onto the ramp confirms that it was incredibly smooth, and he makes his way up the stairs with no fuss. From this height he could see more around him, more of the sky (was it the sky? Can he call it that anymore?) ahead of him and the stars that paint the dark canvass.

Such a sight made him feel uneasy, and he averts his eyes back to his immediate surroundings. Making his way up the stairs didn’t take much time at all, and soon he is able to peek at the top of the tower. He sees something large and clear, looking to be made of glass, but something about the way it sparkled tugged at his gut and he knows it wasn’t something that he’d seen before.

He skips steps in order to make it to the top quicker, anxious to be at the destination this Luma is taking him. He is stepping onto the top of the tower in a matter of moments, looking around as he slows his breathing.

Immediately his eyes are drawn to the large glass object he peeked at before, seeing now that it appears to be something crystal and otherworldly. It stands as tall as him, if not taller, and has jagged points and edges that reminds him of shards of quartz. He chooses to not step towards it, but squints at something small and yellow inside of it.

“What is _that_?” he asks the Luma. They float to where he is standing and examines the crystal.

“We ‘dunno where they come from, but Mama calls them crystals,” they explain. Star’s eye twitches at this a little, feeling redundant at the explanation.

“Whatever…” he mutters to himself. He looks around from where he is standing, seeing nothing but the Luma and the planet they stood on. “Where’s this ‘mother’ you keep talking about? Is she even here?”

The star child flies ahead of him and to the center of the platform, looking around in circles but not seeming lost or confused.

“Mama?” they called out into the air. “Mama, I brought him him here! He seems to be okay, but I think he _really_ wants to know what’s going on.” Black Star scoffs a bit at that, finding it to be a bit of an understatement. He looks around skeptically and taps his foot on the ground, folding his arms to show his impatience.

“Mama?” they call out one last time, and suddenly the atmosphere around them starts pulsing. Black Star drops his arms and regarded his surroundings cautiously.

A stinging sensation seems to fill the air, and he flexes his fingers subconsciously at the feeling. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it still makes him wary. He twitches at an almost soundless buzzing that comes from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

A spot in front of both of them sparks and flashes, and he jumps from the intensity. He and the Luma studies the air in front of them closely, him taking a step back and the Luma giving the spark a wide berth.

A bright blue speck suddenly phases in out of thin air, fizzling and popping as it comes to life. A speck soon turns into a cluster of light, slowly growing until it reaches the size of his fist. Black Star watches in stunned silence as a breeze abruptly starts to pull at him, wisps of his hair becoming tousled from the force. The realization that the source is coming from the strange cluster soon reached him, holding his breath as particles of things unseen phased into existence and pulls into the cluster.

Stardust and _pixels_ of things twirl and dance in the pull of the light, its ethereal glow gradually becoming brighter and brighter until a low pulse starts emitting from the cluster. The pulse is tangible and thick as it washes over him, quickening until a beat akin to a hummingbird’s heartbeat is rushing past them.

The light suddenly flashes, slowly swelling in size until it just barely towers over him, and then the pulse is gone. The insistent hum that the air carried fizzles out around them until all that’s left is the stardust drifting to the floor around the glowing orb, washing over the stone underneath it like the train of a gown.

He holds his breath as a girl opens her eyes inside the orb, floating in the center.

“Mama!” the Luma calls out, immediately rushing over to the girl in excitement. The girl trains her gaze to the small child, a soft smile curling at her lips. Her voice comes out a whisper of many, each her own and echoing around them. It is otherworldly, the way her voice sounds. A tinge of something digital taints her tone, but she speaks clearly all the same.

“You did so well,” she praises, and the Luma glides over to her in order to whisper something to the girl. “Aah, is that so?” the girl says back to the child, amusement light on her tongue. His companion nods confidently, and Black Star narrows his eyes in annoyance. He doesn’t much appreciate any secrets at this point.

Her eyes flash to him for the first time, demeanor completing shifting from when she spoke with her ‘child’. Green eyes pierce straight through his, perfectly poised. Her first words to him cut through the air swiftly and precisely, carrying the same edge that her gaze does. Steady and cool.

_“_ Are you human?” she asks. His face twitches.

“ _Are you?_ ” he counters, one part accusing and another part incredulous. At this, something in her composure slips. Visceral satisfaction lights up inside of him for a moment, happy to gain the upper hand in anything.

There’s a tense silence after he asks the question, her gaze not wavering for one second. He waits for another crack in her perfection, refusing to look away from her challenge. The Luma watches from between them nervously.

“No,” is all she says to him. Something akin to disdain inches into her tone, and he can’t hold back the satisfied grin that stretches across his face. So much for keeping that control, he thinks. Before he can fire something back at her, she speaks again.

“This is a projection you are seeing,” she says. Her tone is back to being no nonsense, seeming to stuff down whatever tension he’d created prior. “I understand you are confused, but I am not able to greet you physically at the moment.”

Black Star squints at this, becoming impatient and annoyed with the lack of solid answers he seems to be getting.

“Sounds like a load of shit to me, lady,” he blurts. He watches as the girl’s perfect composure slips even further, mouth twisting up in frown. He swears he sees her nose flare. The Luma who was still watching their interaction silently suddenly lets out a gasp, looking scandalized.

“ _Excuse me_ , but I’d like it if you didn’t use such profanity around my children, sir.” Her voice comes out in a hiss now, and he feels his grin stretching farther. Messing with this girl is too much fun.

“‘Sir’ is my old man, call me Black Star.” he retorts, not bothering to hide how much he’s enjoying himself.

The girl in the projection seems to take a deep breath, face tense. He can see that her hands are twisted tightly around something that looks like a wand, as if she’s holding back from truly snapping at him. He wishes she would, just so he could see what kind of face she would make.

“In any case, _Black Star_ ,” she sneers. “I’m not here to play games with you. I’ve made contact with you because we both have been wound up in an unsightly situation,” the girl explains. Black Star raises a brow at this as she appears to take another calming breath.

“You have just lost contact with a special one, yes?” she asks. His back straightens immediately, responding without hesitation.

“Tsubaki? You know where she is?” he fires off, eager to get any answers from this woman as he can. The girl continues to reign in her composure.

“I believe so, yes,” she finally says. “But as I am now, I can’t take you to her, nor can I go there myself.”

“Why not?” he asks at once. Her eyes bore into him once more and he stares back with the same level of intensity.

“I have lost some things that were very important to me as well. Allow me to explain?” the girl says, and he scoffs. As if she needed to ask, especially if it was related to Tsubaki and how he could find her, and also _get home_.

“Fire away, lady,” he motions for her to continue. He swears her eye twitches for the slightest second at how he addresses her, but he figures now isn’t the time to be messing around with her anymore, so he doesn’t comment.

“The person who has stolen--” she begins to explain, but hesitates for a moment.

“-- _Tsubaki_.” he says, finishing for her easily. If she was going to help him then she best know the details of what she was getting herself into, he thinks.

“Yes, Tsubaki.” Nodding to herself, she continues. “The person who has abducted her is a dangerous woman who has taken to plaguing the galaxy as of late. In the process of abducting her, she got somewhat _ambitious_ ,” she speaks this word scathingly, looking to be incredibly displeased by this. “--and tried to suck up my Observatory’s fuel source as well. She subsequently failed, and now my ship’s power has been scattered across the cosmos.”

“And so you can’t do anything while your ship-thing is out of power?” he asks matter of factly, already knowing the answer.

“Precisely,” she responds. She twists the wand in her hand absentmindedly as she explains everything, gaze never straying or flitting away from his. He thinks he likes how fearless this girl seems to be. “This is where you come in.”

“Me?” he questions, suddenly skeptical.

“Yes. Like I said before, my ship’s power source has been stolen, meaning I can’t move an inch from where I reside, basically,” she says this exasperatedly, and he notices she’s speaking much more animatedly than before, at least somewhat. “Which also means I also can’t go and retrieve the Power Stars that I’ve lost.”

“Pfft, who named those things? The same person who named those,” he juts a thumb at the crystal behind him. “Over there?”

The girl’s eyes narrow at him intensely, thoroughly unamused. The Luma still continues to look between the both of the curiously, floating to the side without a sound. Black Star can’t hold back the self satisfied grin that threatens to stretch across his face, much too pleased with how easy it is to yank the girl’s chain.

“ _In any case_ ,” the girl continues, effortlessly avoiding his accusation. “There happens to be what’s called a Grand Star very close to you.” She keeps her eyes narrowed at him until she’s sure he’s not going to make another comment. “In the crystal behind you that you’ve already pointed out, is what’s called a Launch Star.”

The girl points to the crystal that’s behind him as he turns his head to look at it once more, feeling a slight sense of validation. He knew he saw something weird inside that thing. Turning back to the girl, he asks another question.

“And how exactly am I supposed to get the thing out of the crystal? I know I look strong, but even I can’t bust through some things with my bare fists.” Black Star stuffs his hands in his pockets, turning his focus back to the girl.

He takes note of her appearance for the first time, having taken time to settle a bit from his initial unease. Teasing her has definitely calmed his nerves.

She doesn’t look any older than him, he notices. With ashy blonde hair that runs past her shoulders, she looks perfectly human too, despite her earlier words. Her right eye is covered by the swoop of her bangs, but he assumes it’s the exact same shade of forest green as the other.

Although the projection of her is suspended a bit higher than him, he doesn’t think she would be taller than him on even ground. A petite frame makes up her body, willowy shoulders on display thanks to the off shoulder gown that she wears.

The gown itself is a bright shade of aqua, flowing down past her feet easily. The skirt fans out seamlessly from just below her bust, swaying loosely around her form. Long, bell-shaped sleeves cover her arms from shoulder to wrist, just as elegant and loose as her skirt. White fabric decorates the ends of her sleeves. A simple, star shaped brooch rests at the top of her dress. A warm yellow gemstone rests the center of of the silver star, shining brightly.

As he finishes taking in her appearance, he wonders just who she is. He doesn’t even know her name.

At his question, the girl turns her attention towards the Luma that has been quietly observing them for the past few minutes, flashing them a warm smile. She beckons the child closer to the two of them, and they oblige happily.

“This child has a unique power that I have not seen present in many other Luma,” the girl begins to explain. Her projection moves a bit closer to him, the star child following closely.

“Mhmm!” the Luma chirps. The girl lets them speak, a fond look on her face as she watches them. “I have the ability to give others a super cool power! It’s like a super strength!” they finishes. They have an excited look to them as they finish, floating closer to Black Star and idly flying around his shoulders in a circle.

“It’s as my child says. While they do not possess this strength themselves, for some reason they can pass it on to someone else temporarily.” Black Star flashes her a disbelieving look, moving his eyes away from the child that floats around him playfully.

“That sounds a little funny to me, lady. How are they even supposed to give to to me, anyways?” he questions. The girl smiles to her child once more, and motions for them to do something.

“Through contact,” she says. “Although, it’s for a limited time. Eventually the power will run out, so to speak, but it’s not a problem. All that’s needed to gain it back it to come in physical contact with this child again.”

Black Star regards the both of them skeptically, still feeling doubt at their words. Though, he guesses he’s already stuck in space, something that he’d originally thought wasn’t a possibility. There’s also a magic lady talking to him in the form of a projection coming from god knows where. He huffs to himself.

“Lay it on me then, squirt.” he finally says, opening his arms wide in surrender. The girl seems amused at his choice of words, and gives the okay to her child for the last time.

Suddenly, something squishy is lying atop his head. The Luma has successfully glomped onto the top of his head, seeming to be pleased with its current placement. Stray stardust trickles down around his head and shoulders, disappearing the instant it touches his skin. The star child hums contentedly from his head, nestled comfortably in his hair.

“Ah--!” he squawks. Of all things, the girl suddenly giggles.

“My, I think he’s wanted to do that for a while now.” the girl chuckles, a lighter expression painting her face than he’s seen their whole conversation.

“Your hair just always looked so soft, ever since the first time I first saw you. I wanted to touch it, but I knew that would be rude so I held back,” the star child says, voice sounding rather like they want to take a nap. Seeing the surprised look in his eyes as he strains to look at her child, the girl speaks up.

“Any sort of physical contact is fine, even like this. I thought that he might have simply held your hand, but it looks like he had other plans in mind.” she says fondly. The Luma makes an ethereal chirp from his place, seeming all too happy with where he’s laid himself. Unable to feel anything less, a fond smile breaks out across Black Star’s face as well.

“Geez, what is it with kids when it comes to my hair.” he chuckles. He reaches up to pat the child affectionately, not noticing how the girl watches him curiously. “So, I have the power now?” Black Star suddenly asks. The girl blinks at him, seeming to have snapped out of whatever reverie she had while watching her child. She clears her throat briefly before speaking.

“Theoretically, yes. I’m not quite sure how it works on a human, though.” He squints at her.

“What am I, a lab rat?”

“If you’ll step towards the crystal behind you, we can test this out. I think a punch or something of the sort should do the trick. Do whatever is most comfortable to you.” she says, thoroughly ignoring him. He makes a show of huffing as he turns around, gently picking the Luma off his head and setting it aside in the air. The child chirps at him sleepily.

After he’s stepped in front of the crystal, he takes another moment to examine it before taking his form. Widening his stance a bit, he rears his fist back for the punch and notices a new tingling sensation flowing through his arm, but pays it no mind before he’s slamming his fist into the surface of the crystal.

An instantaneous rupture greets him the moment his knuckles make contact with the gem, eyes widening as shards and sparkling dust fly past and around him in the aftermath of the rupture, any traces of the towering crystal disappearing as the shards dissolve into thin air or disappear the moment they hit the floor. He raises his forearm to protect himself from any flying debris, but he never feels any so much as touch his arm.

Barely a second later, a large and bright object is expanding in the blink of an eye. Glowing and ethereal, a star levitates in place of the crystal that once was, the poof from it expanding leaving stardust floating to the floor.

Five perfect points, each with a spherical end, make up the star, complete with a hollow center that houses another, smaller star that melds and floats within the main star’s center. The two pieces never seem to quite match up, and when he curiously reaches a hand forward, the two stars glow brighter and start to spin curiously, speeding up like disks the closer he comes to their center.

“This is a Launch Star,” the girl explains from behind him. “Using it, you can travel across a galaxy easily, provided that its trajectory path is useful.”

Turning back towards the girl, he’s about to ask her something more, but is taken aback by the intense expression that has come across her face anew.

“Black Star, this is the time where you need to be quick, and you need to be capable,” she tells him, tone nothing short of determined and demanding his full attention. He stands taller as he listens to her, preparing himself for a rundown of whatever this girl wants him to do.

“This Launch Star’s trajectory should take you right into the mouth of the nearby galaxy that holds a Grand Star. If you feel up to the task, my request is that you travel into the galaxy and retrieve it,” she finally explains. A confident grin suddenly breaks across his face, excited at the prospect of this new mission.

“‘Feeling up to it’? I’m more than ready,” he responds, bringing his hands up to crack his knuckles in preparation. He can already feel adrenaline start to pump through his system, perking him up and pushing away whatever worries he might have had prior.

“Very well then,” she says back to him. Her expression is unreadable to him, but she continues nonetheless. “You will have my gratitude if you can complete this mission. It is a dangerous feat, and I definitely cannot guarantee your safety.” Her expression suddenly takes an even more steeled quality, eyes boring into his as she continues.

“I’d like to make it clear that if you find yourself on the brink of destruction, I will not send one of my children to your aid and risk them becoming sacrificed as well. Are you still sure that you’d like to do this?” He scoffs deeply at this clarification of hers, not bothered in the least. He speaks with no ounce of hesitation.

“My own strength will be more than enough,” he tells her, eyes yielding nothing to the girl and grounding a deep rooted confidence within himself for all to see.

She regards him silently for a moment more, face once again reverting to that unreadable blank slate. Then, her image is fizzling away slowly, voice becoming more and more distant as she bids him the last of her words.

“Alright then,” she says. “I will take my child with me for the time being; it’s much too dangerous for them.” The Luma suddenly sings at this, form spinning and dazzling as they too, fade from his sight.

“ _May the stars shine down on you,_ ” she says finally, soon dissipating completely and leaving him in utter solitude for the first time that night.

Black Star sucks in a breath, fire shining in his eyes as he turns once more to the Launch Star. He marches straight over to where he’d just broken their crystal confinement, resolute and sure.

The two stars still lay heavenward, flat surfaces nearly horizontal with the ground. Craning his head backwards for just a second, he sees that the surface of the stars are truly pointing towards what looks like a small cluster of planets, out to the West of where he is ( _can he even call it West anymore?_ ). He sucks in a breath.

The stars seem to shine and glow exponentially as he approaches, silently picking up speed when he finally steps into the pull of the stars, gasping as his feet are lifted off the ground and he’s held in mid air within the bodies of the stars. The spinning slows to almost nothing after he’s fully situated, their now peaceful grasp surprisingly warm.

Despite the tranquility they now seem to embody, he can still feel their power as they hold him in place. He doesn’t feel particularly tranquil, either. He steels himself one last time.

_It’s now or never_ , he tells himself. As this thought leaves his mind, the warmth circling around his waist suddenly speeds up anew. A jarring screw motion has the stars winding him up in the blink of an eye, faster than he’s them go, and he’s irrefutably tangled up in their pull.

His stomach curls in on itself like he’s falling, and in the next constricted breath the stars spit him into the dark blanket of space. Stardust and tails of blue light trail behind him as he flies, and he thinks he’s screaming. He’s flying, over stars and space rocks and bright colors that keep flashing past his eyes. He stops screaming, and gulps in big breaths. He can’t feel his stomach, but he can still feel the warmth that the stars had left with him. He can see all that surrounds him.

He’s shooting through the sky effortlessly, feeling like there should be wind rushing all around him but feeling nothing. He thinks he hears something like wind and the air’s current around him, rushing past his ears, but there is nothing against his skin. He can still breathe, though, so there must be oxygen available somehow.

His chest is heaving but he’s catching his bearings, swearing to give that goddamn girl a piece of his mind when he finds her. She could have warned him about what exactly would happen when he used the launch star, but instead he was hurled into space with reckless abandon.

Soon, he’s getting closer and closer to that cluster of planets that he’d seen before, and he braces himself for a crash landing. It never comes, however, and he’s instead landing gracefully onto the ground of a planet that’s even smaller than the Gateway.

Immediately, a new luma is waving him over from where they were stationed a few feet in front of him.

“Hi there! Good to see you!” the star child says to him. They speak with a reassuring confidence and something akin to expertise, unfazed by the human man standing in front of them. Unlike the pale color of the first Luma he met, this one was a bright and sunny yellow, much more reminiscent of a star.

“H- hey?” Black Star greets back, unsure of why this luma is stationed so far out here.

“So, I’ve got some bad news.” the Luma begins to explain. “You see, we _had_ another launch star set up for you here, but a meteor smashed it!” they tell him, and immediately his mind is a little boggled with the sheer reach that this celestial mother seems to have. How far her connections and influence can reach across space is daunting, and he finds himself wanting to know exactly who he’s dealing with.

Off a ways to his right, something crashes into the ground with a great amount of force. He can smell dirt and grass being burnt, the scent flowing all throughout the air around him. Looking around, he’s distraught to see exactly what the Luma had just mentioned.

Meteorites the size of beach balls rain down on the planet’s surface, each strike a few feet apart from each other. The meteors explode on impact, scattering hot boiling space rock onto the planet. The shards and chunks seer what grass is left on the planet, leaving scorch marks in their wake and smoke trails floating up into the atmosphere.

“A meteor _smashed it_?!” he asks the Luma, incredulous at how things have seemed to turn out around him. “How am I supposed to continue, then?!” he continues, tone still just as panicked. He resists the urge to curse, feeling like that woman is definitely watching him.

“Not to worry!” the child tells him. “Thankfully, when the launch star shattered it broke apart into five pieces! If you can find all of the star chips, then they should merge back into one and create your way out of here!” they finish, giving him a salute as they move to the side slightly in order for him to continue past them.

“I just need to find five, right?” Black Star asks, swiftly marching past the Luma.

“Five should do it,” the Luma calls after him. “But be careful of falling into the black hole!” they suddenly tack on, and he’s whirling back to face them.

“What?!” he nearly screeches, moving to frantically looking around for anything resembling a black hole. The Luma notices his search, and calls his attention once more.

“Below us!” they say, and suddenly his eyes are drawn to the way that the planet they’re on is _hollow_ . Pathways are practically all that’s left of the planet, barely two feet thick. A skeleton is all that’s left of the dwarf, layers of crust and mantle and core just _gone_. He steadies his feet on the ground and braves looking over the edge of a crater, almost immediately scrambling back from the edge once he gets a good look at what’s beyond.

Dark and twisting, a black hole rests on the inside of what’s left of the planet. It sucks and pulls at what ground is left around it, feasting on the dwarf from the inside out. He had felt its pull as he’d leaned over, and immediately felt sick to his stomach. His hair reached out towards the black hole in response to its pull, standing nearly straight in the direction of the vacuum.

Shaking his head, he wills himself to put it out of his mind as he charges forward. All he needs are those star chips, and he’s good as gone.

The path ahead of him becomes slimmer as he walks forward, but he continues regardless. He’s staying wary of the edges when he comes across another towering crystal mass. It blocks the path ahead of him, but after close inspection he can see something golden from within the gem. Pulling back his fist once more, he lets loose a solid punch against the clear mineral.

Immediately, it shatters just as the last one had. Its remnants dissolve and disappear into the ground, some stray shards whizzing by and becoming trapping within the black hole’s vacuum. A triangular shaped piece of gold levitates from where the crystal once stood, bobbing peacefully in place.

He momentarily asks himself about how there can be such a black hole weak enough that he’s not already dead, but he doesn’t dwell on it for more than a second. He has other tasks, Black Star thinks, and immediately snatches the star chip with his hand.

The chip is barely larger than a silver dollar, hovering over his palm with ease. It’s shape is clear to be that of a single point on a star, a single bead decorating the main tip of the triangle. His eyes nearly bug out as he inspects it, but is soon stuffing it into his pocket.

He walks beyond the hiding spot of the first star chip, and is immediately greeted with a small, brown _thing_. With no arms and and a stubby body, it stands at barely a foot. A mushroom shaped head practically makes up its entire being, with only two small feet of darker color to walk on.

It looks cartoonish in the way it’s constantly glaring, dark eyebrows drawn into a permanent furrow. An underbite makes up their mouth, with two distinct fangs pointing upwards

“ _What the fuck._ ” he murmurs to himself, thoroughly horrified. The creature must have spotted him, because it hops like he’s startled it and proceeds to make a run for him as fast as its stumpy body can carry it.

Nearly squealing in panic as the thing waddles towards him at a speed he is _not comfortable with_ , he rears his foot back as soon as it’s close enough and releases just in time. The steel toe of his boot makes satisfying contact with the creature’s mushroom body, the impact of his kick sending it flying multiple feet away and into the air before decidedly exploding.

A white poof signals the destruction of the creature, and nothing is left of whatsoever when the small cloud dissipates. Black Star immediately goes to wipe his boot on the ground, feeling gross after seeing such a bizarre creature. As he whines to himself, the Luma calls to him through a crater easily. They peer over at him through the planet’s husk.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you about the Goombas!” they say, waving a pudgy star point to him in apology.

Still wiping his boot on the ground, Black Star waves back to assure them he’s fine. He shudders at the memory of the creature, a _Goomba_. He never wants to see one again. He shakes off any lasting horror and devoted himself to his current mission instead.

Soon, he’s found three more star chips from around the planet. Backtracking past the Luma, he sees a glimmer of something out of the corner of his eye. He looks towards the source and squints, seeing a large, almost cylindrical boulder a few feet away. Atop it rests the final star chip.

“Bingo,” he mumbles to himself, and makes his way over with no delay. The boulder is a few inches taller than him, but he hoists himself up easily anyways. Grabbing the final star chip, he’s startled when the other four chips he’d found suddenly fly out of his pocket.

All five chips gather in front of him, following each other around in a circular pattern before they speed up and are coming together in an instant. There’s a flash of light as they meld into one, disappearing from their spot as soon as they’re finished.

A little ways away, he sees the launch star poof into existence on the other side of the planet. It rests above a stone pad of some sorts, no doubt implemented by that woman in order to indicate the permanent spot of that launch star.

Black Star grins to himself and shouts a ‘yahoo!’ into the air, pleased with the outcome of his mission. Carefully, he makes his way off the boulder and strides for the launch star.

“That was some good work!” the Luma cheers once he’s in comfortable range. “This launch star will take you to the next planet. More lumas are stationed up ahead to help you, as well as another launch star. Keep going, just a bit more ways until you reach the Grand Star!”

Black Star flashes his grin to the luma and aims a thumbs up at them, preparing himself to ride the launch star once more. Something occurs to him just as he’s approaching the twin stars, and he voices his thoughts quickly.

“This planet is definitely going to blow big time soon, are you going to leave the same way I’m going?” he asks the star child. He hopes that they don’t stay around to see the destruction of the dwarf, but he remembers the girl’s eyes as she told him she wouldn’t be sacrificing any of her children. Before the luma answers, he figures that they must have a plan to get them off.

“Don’t worry,” they chirp to him. The luma twirls in their place, sprinkling stardust into the air around them effortlessly. “Mama has enough magic that she can teleport me back to the ship from here! Once this planet is through, there’s no need for anything left in this area,” they explain, and Black Star nods in understanding.

He thinks back to the projection he saw of her and weighs the possibilities of having seen magic at work. At this point, he thinks, he would believe anything. Hell, she looked magical. That was enough for him to believe.

He scrunches up his face after second thought, wondering why the hell she couldn't magically teleport _him_ to everywhere she needed him to be, instead of making him run around like a chump. Her gopher.

Whatever.

“I guess I'm going then,” he says, eyeing the way the ground continues to slowly crumble away around him. The star child waves cheerily to him and wishes him farewell.

Black Star steps towards the launch star and lets himself be pulled into its center. He prepares himself for what he knows is about to happen, taking in as much air as he can as the star settles him.

In another instant the star has wound itself up accordingly, and he's launched into space once again. His guts fly up his throat again as he soars, the weightless and yet pressured feeling growing familiar.

When he looks back to the planet behind him he sees the luma who saw him off twirl and disappear in a blue light, the planet finally crumbling completely as the child fades away. Rocks and grass alike get sucked into the black hole, while the launch star miraculously stays intact.

Facing forward once again, he notices that he can breathe better, and that he feels more stable than the first flight. He grins and attributes it to his stunning resilience.

Up ahead he sees his next destination coming closer, squinting to get a better look at the planet.

It looks completely mechanical, with the floor covered in metal and and the strangest moving platforms. A bright pink spike juts up from the southernmost point of the planet-- if he can call it that, or even call the direction that. Are the cardinal points exclusive the Earth only, and also what are the prerequisites of a planet, honestly?

Whatever. Again.

His speed gradually slows as he comes closer to his destination, feet touching the metallic floor with not much hassle. He scrubs his boots against the metal, wondering what the hell it was made of and who put it here.

“What the fuck…” he says, scuffing his boot against the ground just one more time. Star looks up at his surroundings, trying to spot anything that could lead to the Grand Star when something glassy catches his eye.

Up ahead stood a tall glass case, one with something metal and thick on the top. It looked like a lock of sorts, but he had no idea where a key could be. That wasn't the most pressing thing though, because another small luma resided within the case. They chirped in alarm when they saw him, and he rushed over to help immediately.

At his bewilderment, multiple goomba’s dotted the planet this time. They waddled about aimlessly, none the wiser to the boy who watched on in wariness, a slight grimace on his face. He stuck to whatever shadows he could find and whatever object could provide cover, because he was _not_ dealing with this right now. Fuck the space lady for not giving him all the details.

The moving platforms that he saw before circled the middle of the planet like a belt. He sucked in a breath when he saw moving platforms levitating inches above the ground, electricity passing over them and moving with them, or just making them move all together. _Some power source_ , he thought.

Backing up, he leaned on his haunches a bit before darting forward towards the bands, jumping over them in one smooth leap. His feet hit the ground with a resounding metallic _thud,_ and he immediately winced, the ground around him vibrating from the force of his weight.

Brilliantly, horribly, the vibrations reached one of the pink spikes jutting up from the planet, and suddenly he felt his very bones shaking from the heavy rumbles and vibrations coming from the spike.

Suddenly disoriented and dizzy, he stood still for a moment while his teeth clacked together, and watched as the goombas around him were, quite literally, spinning out of control.

Once the ground was stable again Black Star lit up. Making a beeline for the nearest spike, he kicked it. Full force.

Unadulterated glee spread across his face when the spike emitted a new vibration, three fold the power of the first one. The goombas that dotted the planet all simultaneously fell over onto their heads, spinning with reckless abandon.

He cackles, one part nerves and the other part delight when a few goombas stray into the lines of electricity, poofing out of existence almost immediately. One goomba remains alive and kicking, and Black Star feels entirely too compelled to walk over to the lone goomba.

And squash it.

It poofs away comically under his boot, satisfaction flowing through him as he lifts his leg away. As he does so though, he's stunned to find nothing but a small, golden key under his shoe.

He goes to pick it up, but immediately it levitates into the air in front of him and shoots over to the cylinder that holds the star child captive. It clicks into place somewhere on the case’s metal top, and then suddenly, what he thought was glass starts to almost _melt._ The metal top seems to suck up the sides of the case, leaving nothing but open air around the luma when it's finished. He chooses not to question how the metal top poofs away, too.

“ _Fuck yeah,_ ” he mutters to himself. The star child cheers as he goes over to them, twirling and chirping happily in their place.

“My hero!” the star child says to him. Black Star snorts at this, but no less feels pride well up in his stomach.

“You got it, little dude.” As he says this, he affectionately knocks the child’s pudgy stomach with a knuckle. He says the phrase without thinking, not even thinking about the possibility that they wouldn't know what it meant.

“Little dude?” they hum. He blinks, but before he can say anything, the child is happily repeating him over and over. They sing his words back to him merrily, and he can't help but smile at it. These small children are definitely growing on him. _‘You got it, little dude!!’_ is suddenly the most innocent thing he's ever heard.

Maybe the children are something to say about the mother, he thinks briefly. He snorts to himself. Maybe the space lady can raise some good alien kids, but she still got a stick up her ass.

“Mama said you'd be coming!” the star child suddenly says. He raises a brow and ponders how exactly she did that, and if it was some tele-kon-quinoa shit, is his brain not good enough to give info to? Like. Give him a heads up about shit. Damn.

“Here, I can transform into a sling star for you!” they chime, and before he can question it, the luma transforms in a glittery poof into a flat and rounded star shape. He gasps his surprise loudly, hoping to fuck that the luma can change back somehow.

The sling star spins curiously just as the launch star does, but this star is considerably smaller. It pulls him closer to itself all the same, though, and he's being winded up without preamble once he's completely pulled into it.

The star shoots him directly upwards and guides him to the next planet in the small solar system. He's there in all of three seconds, landing softly on his feet with the same metallic ground meeting him. This planet is almost identical to the last, as it has the same mechanical features, but it's three times as big-- which, still, isn't that impressive, but he notes the difference all the same.

This time, multiple pink spikes jut up from the ground. They stick out from the corners of the top and bottom of the machine sphere, with one more larger one sitting perfectly in the middle of the top of the planet. Or, what looks like the top. An equally large and pink circle of the same material spins languidly around the spike in midair, and he grins when he thinks about the damage he might be able to do with the that one. It definitely looks like the most powerful of the spikes.

There's other things to worry about though, because as he's walking the surface of the planet another entrapped luma calls for him from inside a glass case. He's immediately on the track towards them when a goomba, ten times the size of a normal one, steps into view.

He's ducking for cover in an instant, just barely sucking in his screech as he presses his back against a nearby spike.

“ _What the fuck what the fucking fuck--”_ the goomba marches right past his hiding spot, none the wiser to him or his mutterings. It's easily bigger than a car or a carriage, just inches taller than the spike he's leaning against.

“ _Ladyifyou’relisteningthenI’mgonnafuckingfindyou--”_

He watches in horror as the mutant goomba walks right over similar currents of electricity he'd had to jump over, the thing not bothered in the slightest.

“Of fuckin course,” he curses.

He's dealt with some big nasties in his life, and he's not necessarily _afraid_ of the thing. But also it's a giant alien mushroom and he needs a plan before he jumps into action and saves the day like he always does.

  
He gives a glance back to the caged luma and comes to the conclusion that if the key for the last cage had been in that one fugly goomba, then he's right to assume the key for this cage is in his new target.   
  
"Space ladies who don't tell me that keys reside in big bags of dicks at eight o'clock are the _worst_ , by the by." Star whispers to himself, one hundred percent hoping that the girl can hear him.   
  
He keeps his eyes trained on the goomba and tries to think on his feet, and the only thing that pops into his brain are the spikes.   
  
He could wrack some vibrations through the planet again, oh yes, but he also has some other ideas in mind. If the space lady wants a show without the work, then fuck it all if he isn't gonna give her one.   
  
He takes quick and quiet strides across the floor, staying out of the sights of the alien in the meantime while he makes his way over to a spike that he deems good enough.   
  
Once he reaches a good one, he eyes the column with no amount of hesitance and instead grapples onto the spike easily. He makes quick work of the length of it and perches on the top, careful not to settle himself onto the sharp tip. Yikes.   
  
He finds the goomba a little ways away and immediately sets his plan into action.   
  
Placing his thumb and forefinger into his mouth, he whistles loud enough to startle the alien creature. It jumps and then turns to the source of the sound, and he knocks three times on the surface of the column. It charges for him instantly.   
  
A haughty grin stretches across his cheeks and he prepares himself for the leap, muscles tensing accordingly. The goomba stomps its way over in just a few seconds and when it's close enough, he pushes off the spike with his legs.   
  
He expects to simply land on its head and squash it just like the last, but that is not the case when suddenly his body twists in the air rapidly, winding up just as if a launch star had done so.   
  
Something glimmers around him, and then in the next second he's being plunged back down to the ground, hard. Out of instinct he straightens one leg and curls the other in, hoping in a split second he can get his kick in.   
  
With pinpoint accuracy he lands right in the center of the alien's mushroom top head, effectively flattening it under his boot. Just like all the others it poofs away in a cloud, like something out of a cartoon.   
  
He meets solid ground with a thud that rattles his bones a bit, blinking in a slight daze as glimmers stardust he'd seen so many times already fall around him.   
  
Another key materializes from nothing in the absence of the creature and heads straight for the glass case, but he's not paying much attention to that.   
  
He thinks back to the girl and her luma, the one who'd woken him up and taken a liking to his hair. He remembers punching the crystal that held the first launch star, and the strange power that had been packed in his fist. He hadn't realized that the powers the star child had given him could manifest in other ways.   
  
As his breaths slow down from his earlier excursion he holds out a fist and clenches it, then stretches his fingers outwards. He idly watches his skin stretch over his knuckles as he digests his new thoughts.   
  
"Woah..."   
  
A giggle bubbles up his throat, something tired, maybe a bit jittery. He shakes out the foot that had dealt the final blow for the creature and let's himself grin big and wide. Some powers. When he finally meets her, maybe he'd thank the girl for at least giving him this much.   
  
After he makes fun of her for something. Maybe shove in her face how he definitely saved her sorry ass.   
  
When he's done shaking out his legs he turns back to the direction of the luma that had been imprisoned, and sure enough, sees them free as a bird. They wave him over excitedly from their spot next to the _strangest_ green pipe he's ever seen.   
  
Wasting no time he quickly bounds over, looking over the metal figure once he's there. The star child speaks up.   
  
"Oh, gosh, you have no idea how glad I am that you came along!" they tell him. The star child wipes at their topmost star point, just as a human might wipe their forehead. He wonders if a luma can sweat at all, but then wonders if maybe they learned the action from someone around them, and he could definitely guess who.   
  
That's pretty human for somebody who claims not to be, he thinks, but he'll pester her about it later.

“No problem… So, uh, what’s this exactly?” he asks, gesturing to the out of place pipe.

The luma looks over to the pipe and answers easily, “It’s exactly what it looks like, of course!” they chirp. Star’s eye twitches just a bit. “Hurry now, this is definitely the end of the mission! The Grand Star is through here.” Black Star looks at it in surprise. He’s going to go in it??

“You just hop in and enjoy the ride!” the luma finishes. Black Star clears his throat and gives the pipe one last look.

“I mean. Ya, alright. You only live once, and all that.” Black Star takes his steps towards it and turns to the luma once more. “The Grand Star is through here?” he asks. The luma nods readily and gives him that same salute that the other star child had given him, and he chuckles at the similarity.

“See you on the flipside, little dude.”

He steps into the pipe without hesitation, and when he expects to slide, instead he _phases_. He drops into nothingness for a full two seconds before he feels sucked into some sort of vacuum, almost as if the pipe itself was just a skin and the actual function was a magical wormhole.

He squawks as all sense of stability leaves him at once, and the next time he sees light is when he’s careening wildly into the metallic floor of the planet’s inner core. Or so he assumes.

Star hits the floor with a resonating thud, the metal floor insanely cool against his skin. He looks up and finds the _ass end_ of the pipe he’d just fallen out of --or been _spat out of_ , honestly-- at the top of the ceiling. It sinks into the ceiling and disappears, as if to signal it’s laughing at him after its job well done. He tsks and lets his eyes roam away from the pipe and look at his surroundings.

It did in fact look like the planet’s inner core, that’s for sure. A completely spherical room engulfed him and his surroundings, with arching ceilings and curving floors all wrapped around the planet’s center, which he gapes at in silence, suddenly astonished by its appearance.

At the center of the room stands the Grand Star, encapsulated by a glass case similar to the ones that had encaged the lumas. Fuschia rings circled round the top of the case, perhaps as some level of protection as he makes that if he were to touch those rings, they would set loose an intense vibration just as the other spikes had done. That wasn’t what rendered him speechless, however, as he stared at what lie above the star.

Bright and imposing, energy was being sucked straight from the star’s core, as seen by the mass of light and matter that almost completely filled up the upper half of the planet, it's shape reminiscent of a balloon. The energy glowed shades of pink and yellow and orange, and it casted the room in an overbearing orange color, and as vibrant as the color was, it reminded him of something sickly. He would find the sight somewhat beautiful if it weren’t for the fact that the draining process looked like it was _hurting_ the star.

From within its case, the Grand Star floated almost weakly, as if it was going to drop any second. A dark, almost tarnished looking gold sheen made up the surface of the star. He could tell that the star was dying.

This didn’t sit right with him at all. He could feel that this star was more than an object, and that if it could die at all then it was something to protect. Looking around for a solution, he spotted panels lining the floor around the Grand Star in a square. The panels were a bright and synthetic yellow in color, and looked like they were popping up from the floor just slightly. They bended with the curvature of the planet, unbothered by the unusual foundation they lay upon.

Looking around more, he can spot four more panels along the walls of the room, at what he would describe as the cardinal points of the room ( _there he goes again, with the Earth comparisons_ ). They each stood alone and had the same, almost popped up visual to them as the others.

Suddenly, a noise of surprise came from behind the glass case, one that could only be attributed to the unique voices of the luma. Sure enough, a lone star child appeared from behind the case, flying up to him immediately.

“Look, look! The Grand Star-- it’s dying! It’s gonna go out soon if you don’t save it!” the luma cried to him.

“How? Tell me how to save it, and I will.” he spoke back, all of his confidence bleeding into his voice and telling the star child --and the celestial mother, if she was listening-- that he was serious about his words.

“The panels on the floor-- you can step on them to deactivate the machine. Be careful tho, _Zapforms_ are going all around the room! Mama told us that they can hurt you real badly, so watch out for them.” they explained. He was puzzled for a moment at the mention of a Zapform, but when he looked at the aforementioned obstacles, immediately understood the meaning. Electric platforms.

He gives a laugh at all childish names that the girl can think up, this one coming in first place so far. He’ll definitely give her hell about it later.

“Leave it to me.” he grins and says to the child, moving his arm in order to give them one of their kind’s signature salutes. The luma lights up at this and readily gives him one back, sending him off to do his work.

Scouting his surroundings again, he does indeed see a lot of those moving platforms. Each of them have scorching lines of electricity crawling and latched onto their edges, moving with the levitating platforms. They pass around the rooms spherical shape without error, smoothly going over each panel once they reach that point in their rotation. He notices that they don’t deviate from their path at all, and easily finds spots where he will always be safe to stand.

He sets out for the panels, but when he’s walking up to his first one, he notices that it’s… on the side of the room. As in, it is not on the floor. He continues walking towards it and wonders if he could throw something to trigger it, when just as he reaches the wall, he walks straight onto it instead.

Black Star stops in his tracks immediately, not moving a muscle as he stands, completely stable, on what he considered the wall of the room. Letting his head take small movements to look at his feet, he decides that he’s definitely standing at a ninety degree angle.

The thought of gravity finally pops into his head, having not been a thought in his mind the entire time he’s been in space. He recalls that all the planets he’s been on have had the same level and type of gravity as Earth, and he just hadn’t noticed. But, now.

He guesses walking on walls is the new thing of the century.

Black Star lets a whoop leave his mouth and continues walking towards the panel without preamble, not letting himself become bothered in the slightest at this, quite literal, shift in perspective.

When he steps on the panel it’s a smooth and satisfying _click_ as it sinks into the floor, its bright yellow color immediately turning into a deep blue. This must be the signal that it’s deactivated, he thinks.

He makes quick work of the others on the walls, taking delight in finally defying gravity like he’s definitely dreamed about. They all deactive without trouble, and he easily avoids each platform as they move about.

Soon, all that’s left are the panels that encircle the Grand Star. He makes his way towards them and steps on the first panel easily, letting it deactivate at his touch. This time, the panel seems to make a light ding as it goes blue. A one tone chime emits from each of the platforms as he steps on each one, a new feature that tells him these platforms are a bit different than the last ones.

He finally reaches the last panel that holds the star hostage, and relishes as he lets all of his excitement flow into the stomp he lets loose on the panel’s surface.

The panel makes a deeper and more mechanical click as it goes into the floor, and a short burst of steam flows out of all the outer edges of the panels, as if something is releasing. The luma that had been watching from the side of the room cheers for him loudly, and he can’t help but let a self satisfied grin out as he steps back from the Grand Star.

Almost immediately, the fuschia rings stop turning and turn grey and discolored, shrinking in on themselves until they disappear in an instant. Next goes the grand mass of energy that had been sucked out of the star. It too, shrinks down smaller and smaller as it all flows back into the Grand Star with enthusiasm. A static and almost airy sound resonate through the area as the energy rushes back into its home, the Grand Star beginning to glow brighter and brighter with every speck of energy that returns to it.

The last of the energy flows back into the Grand Star, and then the shaking happens. The Grand Star makes its glass case quiver and shake under its sheer force, and soon enough the glass starts to crack and split. Eventually it erupts, and he can say with satisfaction that _that_ , was a pretty sight.

The glass almost looks like glitter as it falls like stardust from up above, its small specks too small to do any damage. With its energy fully restored and healthy once more, the Grand Star shines and glimmers radiantly from the center of the room, no longer washed out and sickly.

The orange light that had covered them all previously is now gone, and instead golden glimmer washes over everything and took its place. It is almost too blinding for him to look at.

“You did it!” the luma calls, rushing over to him in an instant and letting loose those cheerful chirps and sighs that he had heard before.

“I said I would, wouldn’t I?” he grins. He lifts his hand to pat the star child affectionately, one hand resting on his hip triumphantly. After he says this he looks around the room, thinking that the celestial mother is definitely watching. He had said it for her, too.

The star child takes to his affection happily, sounding out their glee with a tell tale chirp of a luma.

“You have to go get it now!” the child suddenly tells him. They move away from his touch and wave to the Grand Star. “Mama has enough power left to get me out of here, but you’ll need the Grand Star to get to the Observatory!” they tell him.

_The Observatory_ , he thinks to himself. So his next destination finally has a name. Or actually, he thinks he remembers the girl mentioning it when she spoke to him. Maybe he’ll start calling it her castle. She acts like a princess enough, surely she’ll take it well. Definitely.

“I just, take it?” he asks, unsure of exactly _how_. The Grand Star itself is as tall as his body, and definitely wider, too. He can’t exactly fit it in his pocket.

“Once you touch it, they’ll-- _it_ will take you straight to Mama! It knows what to do, so don’t worry.” the child finishes. Black Star notices their slight hiccup in their words, but doesn’t comment on it.

“I got it,” Star says. “I guess I’ll see you later then, squirt.” he finishes, giving the child a grin and a wink before they can question his choice of words. He strides towards the Grand Star without hesitation, and lets himself reach for it after a moment.

When he touches it, the star is warm. It almost feels like grasping nothing, and definitely not a hard exterior like it appeared. It feels like energy buzzing beneath his fingertips and the breath in his lungs. The star is full of life, it is a being of light and of ether.

Soon, he feels his feet lift off the ground slowly. He rises with the star as it takes him higher and higher, and he feels pulled towards the star itself. It has its own force of gravity that keeps him safe as it flies higher, reaching the top of the room.

Suddenly, the star rears back to the floor, still for just a moment before shooting back up towards the skies. It busts through the ceiling, or rather, the crust of the planet with no trouble. Pieces of ground and metal fly around the exit wound of the planet’s crust as they emerge, nothing coming close to touching them. They’re miles away in an instant.

He knows that they’re moving quicker than should be allowed for him to survive with no protection, but nothing happens to him. He stays stable, floating around the star as it cascades through the sky and towards wherever it decides. Nothing feels out of the ordinary, there’s not even the uncomfortable feeling of falling that he would think comes with flying.

He wonders if from another planet, somebody is looking up at this and seeing a shooting star.

Black Star laughs at himself for letting that thought get to him a little bit, and doesn’t dwell on the slight elation the thought gave him.

All around him is nothing but space, stars and more stars flashing by as they chase the sky ahead of them. Bright lights and flecks of color pass by his vision but he can never focus on them, always going too fast to stop and stare.

The only things that stay constant in his vision are the things far away, things that must be light years away. He thinks it must be like how the moon or the sun doesn’t move on Earth from where you stand, no matter where you walk. They are omnipresent and infinite beings at home, so he thinks that this must be a similar case. He can see foreign moons and stars that he could make into any constellation he wanted in the way distance.

They --him and the star, that is. He feels uncomfortable calling it an it, for some reason-- go like this for a while, passing by what must be tens of light years worth of stars and moons and planets, flying colors crossing over his eyes. He keeps his eyes on the things in the distance to avoid getting dizzy. He thinks it’s only been ten minutes.

Soon, he can feel the Grand Star slowing down just a little. In the distance, he can see what he can only describe as a spaceship. A coned top is the most prominent feature of the ship, but he can’t see much more, as the rest of the ship is shrouded in shadows. He wonders if a spaceship, something dubbed the Observatory, is supposed to be that dark.

He doesn’t dwell on that thought though, because they’ve arrived at the ship in no time. The Grand Star comes to a slow stop, and leaves him floating over what he thinks is the front of the Observatory. The star drops him carefully on the floor below him, before soon evolving into a bright white light half its original size.

He can’t stare for too long before the white light shoots ahead of him in the blink of an eye. It soars to the center of the ship, towards a dim, darkened core. It looks similar to the floating mass of energy he’d seen when the Grand Star was being sapped of its power, but this looks much weaker. When they collide they meld together, the core absorbing the Grand Star and perking up instantaneously.

The core, now with energy to hold on to, grows and puffs up just a little. Soon, the core flushes into a brighter color, like vitality was flowing through it again. It blooms into a warm cantaloupe color, this shade of orange much less sickly than the last he’d seen. This one is many times more lively and welcoming.

As the core of the Observatory perks up, the left entire side as well as the middle area of the ship where he’s standing lights up. Power is being restored to that section of the ship, and he notices the air becoming that much warmer than it once was. He hadn’t even noticed how cold it had been until now, now that he feels his skin warming up.

Runway lights on either side of the open corridor he’s walking up light up, almost leading him towards the glowing being that stands --floats, just a ways away from him.

The celestial mother has her back turned to him, looking at a giant screen. It had to be at least twenty feet wide, as it was quite the impressive screen. Next to her was a jet black luma, talking to her animatedly. He could hear the luma talking from his place.

“I can’t believe this,” the star child says to her. “The beacon is lit again! It shines weakly, perhaps only as bright as a Class 6 star, but at least the poor lumas will be able to survive now,” they finish. From next to them the girl lets out what sounds like a shaky sigh, rubbing her forehead in relief.

“Indeed…” she says. “Thank the stars.”

Just as he’s about to butt in and make his presence known, the girl turns to him and meets his eyes.

“More importantly, I would personally like to thank you,” the celestial mother tells him. He’s taken aback just a little by how readily she regards him, but eventually doesn’t put it past her; she had definitely gotten a little fiesty the last time they had talked.

Black Star takes the steps needed in order to talk to her properly, not noticing how she seems to steal herself even more the closer he gets. He gives a lighthearted chuckle and extends his hand to her once he’s close enough.

“I would think so, lady. There was a big chunk of information you withheld that would’a helped me out a bit, huh?” he grins. The girl pinks in a flash at his words, and he gets to watch with glee as she stumbles through her words.

“I-- that was--” she begins to say, but he cuts her off with another grin and a wave of his hand, extending it once more to her.

“Don’t worry about it, I bet you had a lot on your plate. And I got it done in the end, didn’t I?” he tells her. Her face turns a little surprised for just a second, and even more so when he finally introduces himself to her properly. “I’m Black Star. You?”

The girl seems to hesitate for a moment and looks at his hand, almost like she doesn’t know what to do with it. Star lets himself laugh again.

“What, even space ladies know how to shake hands, right?” he teases. He offers her a kind smile and doesn’t put his hand down, waiting patiently for her. A sort of realization lights up in her eyes but he can’t discern her expression at this point.

She reaches out her own hand slowly, and he notices that she has a firm grip. The girl speaks her name like she hasn’t done so in years, like it’s almost new to her again, but she’s still sure of it.

“Maka.”

**Author's Note:**

> here it is!! my resbang entry for 2017 skjdhf this was a very wild ride for me to write due to real life extremities going on, but my wonderful partners fez and liz are such wonderful human beings and friends and provided me with all the patience and support in the world and i love them so so much AND ALSO NOT TO MENTION THEIR GORGEOUS AND BEAUTIFUL ART?? THEY WORKED SO HARD???? I SCREAM SKDJF GO CHECK IT OUT RIGHT NOWWW!! i'd also like to send all the thanks and love to my bae ness because she was such an mvp from start to finish <33 she was my wonderful beta and put up with all my antics ;w; she was the first person i ever screamed to about this idea and she helped foster it into what it is today and i love her so much and appreciate her hella
> 
> anyways, this is part 1 in a series im hoping to continue, but i hope you all enjoy this for now <33
> 
> (( http://resbangmod.tumblr.com/post/169322700025/happyfanart-here-is-makas-storybook-from  
> http://resbangmod.tumblr.com/post/169321947540/happyfanart-heres-my-art-for-psychadelicroses  
> http://resbangmod.tumblr.com/post/169321206921/soundofez-let-us-begin-dont-mind-me-just ))


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